gun cleaning help

justin82

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And I'll agree with bruben7886 as well. Letting a professional handle it is your safest bet - especially since it sounds like it's not just tissue paper in there anymore. Also, one other thing...rust expands when it gets saturated with any oil, but PB Blaster (an incredible solvent I always have on hand) will actually break down the rust into a liquid and shrink it rather than expand it.

You may be dealing with the tiny coating of rust in the barrel actually having expanded and "cemented" the tissue paper in place. The PB Blaster will flush out the cutting oil you've used, replace it with the solvent, and could likely free the whole mess.

PB Blaster 11 oz. Penetrating Catalyst Lubricant 16PB-THD at The Home Depot. It works by both breaking down the chemical composition of rust into smaller molecular compounds, and the oil becomes the suspension which wicks away those molecules thereby freeing up space between the rusted parts. It is one of the best possible rust removers out there while being safe for most applications. The longer it's left to do it's work, the better. 24 hours or more is best.

There are alternatives which have been tested to work better under laboratory conditions, but I am not sure what timeframes each were given to do their work. They say that Liquid Wrench, out-performed PB Blaster but in my experience I have found that PB works nearly 100% of the time, where penetrating oil only works maybe 30%.

The one combination or "home brew" that apparently works the best is Acetone and Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF). The Acetone is a very strong solvent but comes with significant risks. It is flamable, noxious, and will melt paint, plastic, and other finishes on contact. It also sucks the oil out of your skin leaving a dead white layer. Contact with Acetone too long will cause cracking and bleeding of the skin.

The ATF has "detergents" built in which are designed to keep the metal surfaces of the interior of the transmission from building up any residue and also to prevent any corrosion. Whether these detergents are safe for a gun barrel is completely unknown to me. If it were my gun, I'd go with the tried and tested PB Blaster. See below.

For all of you that are mechanically inclined and dealing with frozen fasteners:

Penetrating Oils Compared

Machinist's Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break
out torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They arranged a subjective
test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque
required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.
Penetrating oil .......... Average load
None ..................... 516 pounds
WD-40 .................... 238 pounds
PB Blaster ............... 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ............ 127 pounds
Kano Kroil ............... 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix............ 53 pounds

The Automatic Transmission fluid (ATF)-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic
transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this
one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now
use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as

good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.

i have been using the acetone and tranny fluid mix for a year or so now .. works really well
 
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ilikemoneygreen

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Foxcat, that's an awesome post. Very informing. Just as a progress report, i krazy glued the tip of the attachment to the rod, then was able to pull it out of the barrel. didnt get anything on the barrel, my hands were steady :biggrin:. And the barrel isnt really rusted, i had brought it out when a loud pack of coyotes came up to my house, they like to look at my small dogs. an empty air shot scared em off, and i sat the gun on the porch just in case they came back. Then i forgot, it rained for two days here in az, which was awesome, but then i realized my gun was still out their. it wasnt in the rain per se but it was definetly getting wet from the splash and wind. Dirt was all over it when i found it :sad-b:(which was like a week after the rain). the barrel was pretty much smooth, it had hair and small dirt inside. No rust on inside as far as i could see (the tissue paper would have told me more then the penlight. )
I might take it to a gunsmith if thats what it takes but id prefer in house. if it were larger cal and an actual home defense weapon id probably go right now.
 
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ilikemoneygreen

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Nice to see you CJM, been a while. You still rocking your nexus?
 

lloydstrans

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ilikemoneygreen said:
Foxcat, that's an awesome post. Very informing. Just as a progress report, i krazy glued the tip of the attachment to the rod, then was able to pull it out of the barrel. didnt get anything on the barrel, my hands were steady :biggrin:. And the barrel isnt really rusted, i had brought it out when a loud pack of coyotes came up to my house, they like to look at my small dogs. an empty air shot scared em off, and i sat the gun on the porch just in case they came back. Then i forgot, it rained for two days here in az, which was awesome, but then i realized my gun was still out their. it wasnt in the rain per se but it was definetly getting wet from the splash and wind. Dirt was all over it when i found it :sad-b:(which was like a week after the rain). the barrel was pretty much smooth, it had hair and small dirt inside. No rust on inside as far as i could see (the tissue paper would have told me more then the penlight. )
I might take it to a gunsmith if thats what it takes but id prefer in house. if it were larger cal and an actual home defense weapon id probably go right now.

Baking soda should dissolve the tissues, pour a tad of baking soda down the barrel now comes the bad part, to activate either pour boiling water ( I would mix some soluble oil with it) or boiling vinegar. Depending on bad it is tamped in there probable take quite a few tries. Household items, close to beer. The vinegar adds a aerating effect.
 

FoxKat

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Foxcat, that's an awesome post. Very informing. Just as a progress report, i krazy glued the tip of the attachment to the rod, then was able to pull it out of the barrel. didnt get anything on the barrel, my hands were steady :biggrin:. And the barrel isnt really rusted, i had brought it out when a loud pack of coyotes came up to my house, they like to look at my small dogs. an empty air shot scared em off, and i sat the gun on the porch just in case they came back. Then i forgot, it rained for two days here in az, which was awesome, but then i realized my gun was still out their. it wasnt in the rain per se but it was definetly getting wet from the splash and wind. Dirt was all over it when i found it :sad-b:(which was like a week after the rain). the barrel was pretty much smooth, it had hair and small dirt inside. No rust on inside as far as i could see (the tissue paper would have told me more then the penlight. )
I might take it to a gunsmith if thats what it takes but id prefer in house. if it were larger cal and an actual home defense weapon id probably go right now.

Well I am pleased to hear that you got the cleaning rod out. Just how far down the barrel is the paper anyway? I read something like 4" inside and about 2" - 3" of paper? Here's an idea.

Like CJM mentioned using the wood dowel rod to chew out the paper, I might suggest you use the straight portion of the brass cleaning rod and take a file or hacksaw, cut an X in the flat end of the rod deep enough to leave slots. Then file the 4 pieces of metal that comprise the X to angles so that the flat face where you've cut or filed is facing left when you look at the end, and the right side is sloped down and away. Essentially you're creating a drill bit with 4 "vanes" or shear-points. Then take that rod, insert it into a hand drill and use it to chew out the paper. Insert it and turn counter-clockwise (as if to remove a screw), while watching how deep it moves, then pull it out and clean out the slots. Doing this repeatedly will allow you to cut through it all.

Using the brass will avoid damaging the barrel rifling and it's fairly easy to work with hand tools on.

home-made auger bit.png
 

bruben7886

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Coat hanger. Heat the end to red hot. Burn a little paper off. Hanger out.....reheat...repeat. Safe on the barrel....no acids or alkalis...no corrosion.
Or gunsmith :)
Lived in AZ for 7 years. Loved it!
 

lloydstrans

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Is it too late to trade it in for an anodised aluminum feinwerkbua?
 
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ilikemoneygreen

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Just to update this thread, i had spare time today and spent another hour on this. I went to the store and got the wooden rod. i hit the wad of paper out with the wooden dowel rod CJ mentioned, Kats suggest was awesome and that worked, but would have taken me so long to eat the paper out though. The rifling looks good. I thought for sure that i damaged it a little but its great. Shot at some gophers just to test it out and its still works....just didn't hit em. Im glad you guys had some good suggestions.

Lloyd, ive actually shot those in high school. I shot competitively on the rifle team in NJROTC. Was so fun...but those expensive rifles only got pulled out a couple times. Apparently the precision's required other gear which we didnt have so they weren't practiced with. $4000 paper weights.
 

lloydstrans

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I have a pic on another thread, and on my old phone. Dumb cloud, can't get nothing up or down. Maybe its this dummy.

If it's not HD it might as well be a newspaper.
 

lloydstrans

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images-1.jpg

Teaches you control, Woot.

If it's not HD it might as well be a newspaper.
 
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